JERSEY:
Inexplicably, in 1934 NU reverted to wearing the 1928 style white
uniform,
with no shoulder panels and no numbers on the front.HELMET: Same.

PANTS: The team again
wore purple pants.

1935-1955 (White)

JERSEY:
The purple jersey remained the same style as it had since 1929, but
late
in 1935 the white jersey had regained the front numbers and now had a
purple
collar. This white jersey would be a staple for the Wildcats for
two
decades. Occasionally, however, some players wore a jersey with a
plain
white collar.HELMET: For only the
1935 season the front panel of NU's helmets was painted white.
For the rest of
the Thirties NU wore plain dark leather helmets.

1937-1939; 1944-1945;
1948-1956(Purple)

JERSEY: Finally, in
1937 NU's purple jersey joined its white counterpart and featured
northwestern
sleeve stripes. Along with the white version, this jersey would
be
a classic, and was used for 20 years.

NU used both the white and purple jerseys during this time except for
1940
through 1943 and 1946 through 1947. During these years NU wore only
white jerseys. Though he may have worn a purple jersey in
practice, NU star Otto Graham never wore one in a game.HELMET: NU wore
its
black leather helmets through 1939. In 1940 NU became the first college team to wear a modern plastic helmet (click here to read more about NU's experimental helmet). The dark purple shell helmet had a black attached strip
running
vertically and a white strip that ran across the forehead,
partially
covered by the black vertical strip. The 'Cats wore the dark
shell
helmets through 1944.

In 1945 NU switched back to leather helmets with the cross-hatch style.
From
the late Forties through 1953 NU's players used both leather and
shell
helmets.

The 'Cats switched for good to modern shell helmets in 1954. The
1954
helmets were white, had no face guards, and had a purple stripe pattern
identical
to the northwestern sleeve stripes. This helmet was also worn in
1955.

PANTS: Pants used
during this period started with purple in 1937. In 1938 the
team switched to tan, and used tan through 1942. During 1942, the
team
wore tan for non-conference games with the service schools and (for the
first
time) white pants for Big Ten opponents. The 'Cats added a purple
stripe
to the white pants in 1943 and used that style through 1951, when, mid
season,
they switched back to tan. The tan pants lasted three seasons.
NU
went back to white pants in 1954 and added two stripes to the pants in
1956.

1956 (White)

JERSEY: By 1956, NU's uniform
had changed very little in over twenty years. Parseghian's first
four
years saw continuous changes to the uniform, starting with the white
jersey
in 1956. The jersey numbers changed to a rounded font similar to
that
used by UCLA. Strangely, the numbers on the purple jersey did not
change.HELMET: NU's white
shell
helmet now had a completely rounded, modern shape and also featured a
faceguard.
The stripe pattern changed to two stripes, as shown.

1957

JERSEY:
The purple
and white jerseys now shared the same new style. Not only did
they both
sport UCLA-style numbers, they featured UCLA-style stripes as well,
through
the shoulders. The style lasted just one season. HELMET: Same style as
1956, now with players' numbers on the side, in black.

PANTS: Remained
white, with two purple stripes.

1958 (Purple); 1959

JERSEY:
After a year using the same
style for its purple and its white jerseys, NU went back to using
different
styles for each. It also went back-- way back-- for its jersey
style.
The purple jersey was absolutely plain, with white block numbers
on
the front and back, the same jersey worn in 1929. The white
jersey,
however, returned to using northwestern stripes on the sleeves.
For
1959 the white jersey lost its stripes, and both were identical and
plain, with plain block
numbers. HELMET: In 1958 the
helmet lost its stripes. This helmet would last nearly a decade.

PANTS: NU lost the
purple stripes on its white pants as well in 1958.

1960-1972

JERSEY:
Parseghian's final changes to the jersey would last for well over a
decade. For the first time numbers were put on the shoulders,
between the shoulder pad and the sleeve. This style would
remain throughout Alex Agase's period as coach.HELMET: The 'Cats
continued
to wear plain white helmets with player numbers on the sides through
1967
(the numbers were larger during 1966-1967 than they were during
1958-1965).
In 1968 NU changed to an all-purple helmet that, for the first
time,
featured a logo-- the connected "NU" design.

PANTS: In 1962 the two
purple stripes returned to NU's white pants (for the
1963 season only, NU wore purple pants on the road).

1973-1975

JERSEY: The
Pont administration made one minor change to the uniform during its
first
year at NU. Stripes returned to the sleeve for the first time
since
1956; however, it was just one stripe, an elastic stripe at the end of
each
sleeve.HELMET: No major
change. For the 1975 season only, the white faceguard was altered, and
NU used an oversized plastic faceguard.

1976-1977

JERSEY: In 1976 Pont brought back the
northwestern striping to the jersey sleeve.
Together for the first time with shoulder numbers (now higher on
the
shoulders), the striping produced what is THE classic Northwestern
jersey.
Classic or not, it was used for just two years.HELMET:
1976 was the
ninth
and final year for the purple "NU" helmet with no stripes. When
the 'Cats opened the 1977 season at Iowa, the players decided to take
the logos off their helmets, spiritually disassociating themselves from
the 1-10 NU team of 1976, and called themselves "Phantoms." After
the game (a 24-0 loss), the players abandoned the Phantom look and the
plain purple helmet. For the rest of the 1977
season
the 'Cats wore a purple "NU" helmet that featured two white stripes.

1978

JERSEY: In 1978, as Rick Venturi took
over the team, the jersey lost its
stripes and reverted to the 1960 style. HELMET: Venturi
introduced a new helmet: white, with one purple stripe and the "NU"
logo in purple.

PANTS: The white pants
in 1978 also
changed, with just one purple stripe used down the side. For a
couple
of games in 1978, including the last two home games, NU wore purple
pants
with a white stripe. It was the first all-purple uniform for NU
in
decades.

1979 (Purple); 1980

JERSEY: Venturi, in
his second season, introduced one of the boldest changes to the NU
uniform.
In 1979 the purple jersey featured white sleeves with a wildcat
head
image. The white jersey, however, remained the same as 1978:
plain
white, no stripes, purple numbers on the front and low on the
shoulders.
The 1980 purple jersey was the same as 1979, and NU made the
white jersey consistent,
adding the wildcat head image on purple sleeves.HELMET: Two more
seasons
under Venturi, two more helmets: both kept 1978's white shell with one
purple
stripe. The 1979 helmet featured the short-lived "Script n" logo.
The
1980 version had the even shorter-lived "Script Cats" logo.PANTS: Pants for both
years were the same as before-- white, with one purple stripe.
However, for some (but not all) road games in 1979-80 the 'Cats
wore
purple pants.

1981

JERSEY:
With Pont and Venturi's exit, the two-toned uniform left as well.
In
1981, Dennis Green's first team wore jerseys identical to the 1960
uniform: plain
purple, no stripes, white numbers on the front and low on the shoulders.HELMET: For the fifth
year
in a row, NU wore a new helmet onto the field. However, unlike
the
others, the 1981 design would not only stick around, it would become
one
of the all-time defining images of the team and of the University.
It
was the most important uniform change since "northwestern striping" was
added
to the jerseys in 1928.

NU went with a plain purple helmet, no stripes, and a white face mask.
The
logo, in white, was a brand new design, created for Northwestern by
Gordon
Stromberg. The design (variously called the "Athletic N,"
"Northwestern
N," or "Sculpted N") was distinctive and modern; however, by its
simplicity
and its placement on a plain field of purple, it harkened to NU's
earliest
athletic letter designs and tied in school tradition. The variant
"N-Cat"
design, with interlocked 'Cat-head, would take its place alongside the
"Athletic
N" logo a couple of years later, but the helmet's simple, flaired N
design
remained the more formal and elegant of the two, and remained on the
Wildcat
headgear.

1982-1989

JERSEY: For NU's intercollegiate
football
centennial celebration, the Wildcats decked out in a new uniform.
NU
returned to using northwestern sleeve striping. Now the stripes
and
numbers had a grey outline. This uniform would continue to be
used
for eight seasons, with the following minor changes:

In 1982 only, the
team wore a commemorative patch on their left shoulders, celebrating
100 years of NU football.

By the late
eighties, the middle sleeve stripe narrowed, so that the three stripes
were almost equal in width.

HELMET: The 1981 helmet
did
not undergo any major changes. Early during this period, the
white
"Athletic N" logo had a thin grey outline.
PANTS: For 1982 through 1989, NU changed the pants for its
uniform constantly, sometimes
mid-season. With the shift to grey accents on the new 1982
jersey,
the 'Cats switched to grey pants for the first time in many years.
NU
used the grey pants until 1985 when it started using white pants with a
grey-purple-grey
striping. This look lasted a couple of seasons, then in 1987 NU
began
using white or grey pants practically on a game to game basis, with
grey
pants being worn usually on the road. By 1989 the 'Cats were
exclusively
wearing grey pants with a white-purple-white striping.

For at least one game during this period (the 1989 game at Purdue), NU wore purple pants, for the first time since 1980.

1990-1991

JERSEY: The 1990 Wildcats
sported a new sleeve stripe style, with an elastic band at the end of
the
sleeve that featured small, equally sized grey and white stripes.
The
grey outline around the jersey numbers now did not touch the white
numbers,
but had an outline from the purple jersey between it and the numerals. On November 16, 1991, NU hosted Iowa and
wore purple jerseys in a game for
the last time until 2003.HELMET: The 1981
helmet, with one small change: in 1991 the 'Cats dropped the white faceguard
in favor of a purple one. The front sticker (CATS) remained the same. The grey outline was used for the N logo.

PANTS:
NU kept with
light grey pants with the white-purple-white stripes, with a couple of
exceptions.
For the 1991 Illinois game at Dyche Stadium, NU wore purple
pants,
along with their standard purple jerseys and helmets. The 'Cats
also used purple pants for several road games. The purple pants were unlike the grey
pants: the purple pants had no stripes, and featured the N-Cat on the
right hip. The 'Cats would wear these pants as standard issue
beginning with Barnett's 1992 team.